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The crunch of Hailey’s hurried footsteps was the only noise my head hadn’t filtered out. The bustle of soldiers rushing around the camp; soundless. Quartermaster’s negotiating over whether they had the correct amount of supplies for their division; dulled.

I was only focused on reaching the command tent and talking to Julius to figure out what in the Goddess’ name was going on with Mei.

“Make a hole!”

My command created a path through the camp as the mass of uniformed divisionals split to make way.

It was only once I’d reached the large tent flanked by a metallic tower and a slew of weird techno-baubles did I pause and turn to check on Hailey.

Trailing behind her was my whole gaggle of attendants, including Beno. They wore looks of concern, but their fussing could wait.

“Hails, which of these stupid devices is the one I need to talk to Julius with?”

“Tomin is sitting at the terminal, he can make the call.”

The inside of the tent was a total mess of metal boxes and wires. I spotted Tomin’s ginger hair among the tens of people sitting around the communications equipment.

“Tomin,” I called out, drawing his attention, “Call Julius’ camp and get him on the screen.”

He looked flustered but began fidgeting with a small box down by his hands. It made a series of strange noises then went quiet. A moment later, a similar-looking box next to it made its own set of beeps.

The large black screen above his crackled to life.

Julius’ face was displayed close-up. He looked pretty worn out. That, or this technology didn’t do him any favors.

“Hey, Airis. Nice to see you’re well. Hailey said you were—”

“I’m fine, Julius. We can skip the usual banter. What do we know about Mei? I’m supposed to believe we have no sentinels that have checked out that area since her division headed north?”

“One second, I’ll have the call bridged with the Seeker base.”

The second little box that made noise just a moment ago began to beep again. Tomin flipped some kind of switch on the first small box and sent a response of beeps.

Julius’ screen flickered.

The section his face was in was now only taking half the screen on the right. A flash of light later, and both Hanna and Luke came into view on the left side.

Oh, that’s neat.

“That’s nifty. Hey guys. What are we dealing with? Is it possible the equipment we sent with Mei was faulty?”

Though hard to see, Hanna grimaced.

“I don’t think so. Even if it was, there were more than enough artificers and comms engineers that accompanied her. We just arrived yesterday morning, and we’re still a day early technically. It doesn’t explain the lack of her team’s check-in, but we’re expecting the sentinel team dispatched that direction to be reporting in any time now.”

I groaned, “So we’re all getting to our bases early, except for Mei. What do we know about the Renaultians on the Larian? Any movement from there that would indicate responses to sabotage? Even if Mei is completely dark, she may still be moving ahead with her mission.”

Hanna waved a handful of papers at the screen.

“Any teams getting too close to Axio are getting spotted. The Renaultians are surprisingly good at sniffing us out, but we’re not sure why.”

“I know why,” I admitted, “Hailey or Tomin probably already reported it to Julius, but we were ambushed by a horde of demonic wolves on our way to Brookshaven. We saw evidence of a warp crystal being used. I think it’s safe for us to assume they’ve tamed or employed the use of the hounds through other means.”

“That’s gonna be a problem…” Luke muttered.

“Yeah. I imagine. But our concern right now is Mei’s division. I can ask Ikuye to go investigate. She’s fast. Probably fast enough to get there by nightfall.”

“I’d rather not,” Julius started, “Your camp is meant to be a distraction and runs a very real risk of the Renaultians mounting an offensive against it. With that combat-crazy angel with you, they wouldn’t stand a chance. Nobody can prepare for that. With her gone though, you may actually lose a lot of people before my divisions can get to you.”

Hailey and I’s camp was basically an attachment of civilians and knights the same size as what escaped Axio and made it to Tolin.

We were hedging our bet on the Renaultian intelligence not knowing about the thousands of additional Aestori. As Julius said, there was a high chance that the Renaultians would think my camp was the extent of our forces.

Julius’ camp with the main forces was much further away from the river crossing and fielded most of our higher-level soldiers.

Complex scouting patrols were set up so that any Renaultian patrol would be eliminated before reporting any details if they ventured that far.

“Shit.” I sighed.

“I hate to say it,” Julius crossed his arms, “But we’ll move forward with the attack on the bridge crossing as planned with or without them reporting in. If they were compromised, it would be smarter to proceed as soon as possible. With both the Seekers and Airis’ decoy division being ready. We should leave tonight and begin the attack when the sun rises.”

“Leave tonight?” I asked, “If that’s the case then there is no good reason for me to not send Ikuye to track down Mei.”

“Airis, I get that you’re worried about her, so am I. It’ll be like searching for a needle in a haystack. We don’t even have a bead on where Mei would be.”

Julius’ tone implied he was determined to fight me on this.

“Doesn’t matter. Ikuye can pinpoint people based on magicka signatures. She knew exactly when and where Hikita had teleported into the city before any of us did. All she needs to do is be remotely close and she’ll pick up Mei’s tracks.”

“By the… Fine, have your celestial friend do whatever you want. Everyone plan to have your camps torn down and forces moving according to battle plans Delta-One—actually, scratch that for you, Luke. Keep the camp intact and leave the smallest force you can. If Mei turns up they’ll need someone to tell them what’s going on.”

“Affirm.” “Will do.”

Tomin and Luke both acknowledged Julius’ orders.

“And, Airis.” Julius apparently wasn’t done with me yet. “Stop ditching your attendants.”

His screen went dark and the view shifted to a full screen of Luke and Hanna.

“Call us if you hear anything about Mei in the next few hours. If that sentinel division doesn’t report in by—hmm, let’s say two hours, I’m sending Ikuye.”

They acknowledged and the screen went completely dark.

Tomin turned to me with a distressed look.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“I respect Grand-Waystrider Devins a lot. I also trust that she knows what she’s doing, even if she’s a new officer. I understand your concerns, but she may not take the gesture as a worried friend—instead, it may seem like a lack of trust.”

I resisted the urge to argue with him.

Tomin was right, I just didn’t like how much he sounded like Julius just then.

“I get it. I get it. We’re all worried about Mei but we shouldn’t do anything rash. I’ll leave you to it. Call me if they find out anything.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

I walked over to Hailey and rested my head on her shoulder. “You’re gonna be busy breaking down camp, I guess?”

“I can leave it to one of the other officers. Did you need me for something?”

“Kinda. I was going to give the Goddesses a call. Didn’t want to do it alone.”

Hailey paused.

I could sense her unease. The emotions of my close companions were getting easier to read as long as I was physically near them. A side-effect of my high affinity for things Aether-related.

Virgo had implied it was because their souls were mingling with my senses.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” I reassured her.

“N-no! I’ll join you. It’s just weird to think that we can just go talk to Gods whenever you want. Ya’ know…?”

I wrapped my arms around her in a hug.

“Thanks, Hails.”

I lifted my head up and was greeted by two small brown-haired kids looking at us awkwardly.

“What about us, Your Majesty?”

“Yeah! What do we do, Your Majesty?”

Nikolas and Taryn Petlin.

The two of them were assigned to me by Julius. They were apprentice knights, the third son and fourth daughter respectively of the laynoble House of Petlin.

Nikolas was barely sixteen and his sister was two years younger.

Unlike Beno, who filled a plethora of roles in my retinue, both of these kids’ only job was to follow me around and prevent me from coming to harm.

Really, a new terribly sick game that Julius has crafted here.

“You two can…”

What in the Aether can they do? Exposing children to the presence of either Virgo or Capricorn can’t be a good idea. Right?

I looked to Hailey for help but she just shrugged.

Dammit! I’m on my own.

“Could you both go escort Princess Rias and Akari?”

Nikolas wasn’t buying my cheap attempt at getting rid of them.

“Commander Adaemus said you shouldn’t—”

“Yes, but whose orders do you follow?”

“Your Majesty’s, but what about—”

“It seems my attendant likes to ask many questions. Perhaps you wanted to take more study lessons with Beno?”

“Gah! No, Your Majesty! I’ll escort the Princess and Miss Akari as you asked.”

Nikolas grabbed his sister’s hand and raced out of the tent.

Taryn waved at me sweetly, “Bye, Your Majesty! See you later.”

----------------------------------------

Hailey and I returned to my tent after convincing Beno and my three other attendants that there was something important we needed to do. Alone.

Which was great—as normally they’d stick to me even if I begged to be left alone, they weren’t as easy to trick as the kids—but I had a suspicion they took my request for solitude in a different way.

My phrasing left a bit to the imagination, even causing Hailey to blush.

But I didn’t bother to correct their mistaken ideas. I’d rather they think Hails and I were spending our time in risqué ways.

“Ready?”

“As ready as I can be for you to summon a Goddess.”

I tugged at the lines of magicka that connected me to Capricorn and focused my thoughts on contacting her. The link seemed to pulse—a disconcerting feeling to have your soul vibrate—and then went still.

Words entered my mind. Silvery and melodic.

“I’m busy at the moment. I’ll send one of my kids.”

“You’ll what!?” I exclaimed out loud, surprising Hailey who nearly fell off the edge of the bed.

I understood Capricorn could be busy.

Yep. She’s a literal Goddess. She may have things to do.

But to send ‘one of her kids’… What does that even mean?

Golden traces of magick etched themselves into the space before us, and I knew I’d get the answer soon enough.

The air crackled with energy and a portal of orange flames opened.

A young-looking girl stepped through and glanced around the tent. She wore an immaculate white robe that swallowed her small body and had golden hair that was pulled back in delicate braids.

In her hands, she held a large book. It was bound in a white leathery covering and had intricate white metal embossments.

The portal began to close behind her. The flames that had formed it swirled in the air towards the girl, settling in place near her back and erupting into great feathery wings of flame.

As her wings stretched out I realized I had seen this Alaetüs before—when I peered into Ikuye’s memories accidentally through a psycho-whatchamacallit.

“Aurielle.” I muttered her name.

Her gaze locked on to me in an instant, her eyes flared bright orange and her face was full of malice.

The book in her hands glowed white and her expression softened.

“Ah.” she mused, “Our new sister. I was curious what special place mother would fling me to. I understand now.”

“Capricorn… flung you?”

“Indeed. I was in my library one moment and soaring through the Aether the next with a message, ‘Deal with it.’—I was quite surprised.” Aurielle mimicked Capricorn’s sing-song voice perfectly.

“Airis,” Hailey’s voice wavered next to me, “What’s going on?”

“Capricorn was, uh, busy. So she sent Aurielle.”

Hailey nodded along quietly, shifting her eyes between me and Aurielle.

The angelic girl leaned in with a curious look, “We haven’t met, yet you knew my name. How?”

“Oh, I saw you in Ikuye’s memories. We… I don’t know what to call it really. Psychometric episode doesn’t really explain—”

“I understand.” Aurielle cut me off. “What did you need? I’d appreciate it if this was resolved quickly so I can go back to my reading.”

Aurielle looked no older than a twelve year old girl but had the mannerisms of an older noblewoman.

The incongruence was unsettling.

I didn’t want to talk to her about the things I had meant to discuss with the Goddesses, it seemed too sensitive.

Not asking anything would be suspicious…

Ah, but there is something I could ask and then let her go.

“I wanted to ask if there was a way to reverse the deaths of my soldiers from a distance. I have RESURRECTION but I have to be close enough to touch someone. I can’t be everywhere all at once and recovering bodies in the middle of battle may not be an option.”

“Imbue the magick into trinkets.”

“Trinkets?” I asked cautiously.

“Indeed. Set a Discernment rune to activate upon soul detection and it will use that spell to recover them before they leave for Aver’teria. Some sort of healing spell would also be good to include in that as well, otherwise, the creatures will die from their wounds all over again.”

I didn’t expect to get a real answer. I was prepared for a haughty response about how taking souls from the underworld was a big deal and how much the Celestials couldn’t interfere with each other.

“Was that all?”

I nodded my head and Aurielle’s wings expanded into a fiery portal. She disappeared with a flash of light.

“Huh. I guess that went well. I’ll have to ask Rias to make some runes to test that out.”

“Are they all like that?” Hailey asked, finally snapping out of her daze.

“Uhm,” I thought about it for a moment, “I dunno. Each one I’ve met had seemed like a pretty unique person. Besides Ikuye, that was the first one I met outside of the aetherial planes, though.”

“She really didn’t want to stick around. It was just like Tamirayth told you.”

“I don’t really wanna call Virgo now. What if she’s also busy.”

“Yeah, please don’t.” Hailey pleaded.

“Then I guess that’s all I wanted to do today. I think I’ll take a nap before we head off tonight.”

“I’ll… join you I think.”